Sleepwalking

'Sleepwalking' by Modest Mouse is a 1996 track about romantic fixation that slips into aimless wandering, with the speaker hunting for someone’s whereabouts like a “road map”. Alongside the infatuation, the lyrics sketch a slice of everyday restlessness, from hanging about in a convenience store car park to the motif of sleepwalking, as if desire has become automatic. The tone is excitable and urgent, then oddly detached, culminating in a wish for the other person to simply turn up. The backing imagery of headphones and white noise sharpens the sense of mental loops.